We're still here, I am officially retired from my Air Line days and found a great opportunity as an Aviation Safety Manager at a local University. Looking forward to learning from the Generation Next.
Our basic training device, we are on track to add a new Advanced sim trainer. Anyone want to sponsor it?
The University dates to 1868, and the old barn got repurposed into an admin center.
Field trip!
Found a new spot for CYANE, more sunlight and closer to her peeps.
They said we were welcome to use the boats.
And today the first steps were made to get this caboose on the next adventure, future home is in Windsor, VA. We like railroad stuff, and are looking forward to maybe helping with the restoration and future use.
Spring cleaning for CYANE. Skipper wanted to get the snow off of CYANE so she pressed WILEY into service to pull the trailer around to the wash rack.
A few days earlier we had near record snowfall, 8 inches at our place.
After a few days there was still quite a pile of snow on the boat. The good news is CYANE is parked in a sheltered spot, but the spot does not get enough sun during times of the year when sun is desired to dry things out a bit.
The first small victory was knowing where the key for the hitch lock was, right where we thought it would be.
We towed CYANE to Virginia in 2021 on 4 year old tires...and she sat. The code 2517 is the WWYY Week Year that the tire was made, so sometime July 2017ish. While the tire looks okay, there are microfissures all over it and 6 years is the recommended life. So time for new tires.
Skipper makes it look fun...
...it was like an archeological dig...
...and I got to finish.
Foredeck cleaned off, now to see what is under the tarp.
Gear that we pulled out of the cuddy, including a ten year old fire extinguisher. The age limit in Virginia is 12 years, so as long as the pressure gauge reads good, it has two more years. The gear was damp but not mildewed.
Meanwhile in the Sunfish Shack everything was dusty but dry.
Skipper lodged a complaint that her wagons were full of other people's junk, so I cleaned out two of them. And put a new tire on a Gorilla Cart. I need to find a better spot for the electrical cords, which are for use with the generator if we have a power outage. We keep them handy because we are still traumatized from living in Florida and Hurricane season.
There is a 19 foot Drascombe Lugger in here somewhere. It is actually mostly ready to roll if we move some cardboard and boat cover. But we'll check her out soon, because Webb told us that gear multiplies in the dark.
CYANE scrubs up real nice. She needs to d an afternoon of Yard Sailing and then she'll be ready for a Spring Fling.
Outlaw Trailer Court, Inc. We are trying something new with the safety cones, suggested by Ben.
We are still staring at this rub rail, like by staring at it, it will magically reproduce itself. A good portion of the rubrail was rotten, so we removed all of it and kept a few pieces to be used as a pattern. It would be easy enough to cut the roundovers on top and bottom, they look to be about 3/4", but the middle cove has us stumped. Any thoughts on how to shape the shouldered groove?
We are looking for information on P. D. Gwaltney Sr.'s Gasoline Yacht named Jean & Virginia, shown here on the Pagan River in Smithfield about 1905.
Image credit: Smithfield A Pictorial History. Segar Cofer Dashiel. 19177.
Image credit: Smithfield A Pictorial History. Segar Cofer Dashiel. 19177.
We think that Jean & Virginia was built by the Gas Engine & Power Company in Morris Heights, Bronx, New York, USA. There is another yacht built by Gas Engine & Power Company named Virginia bumping around up North, a 40 footer with the same clipper bow. A sister ship?
SERO Innovation of Marine City Michigan are the new licensed builder of the Sunfish sailboat. They are hoping to have boats on the water in the late Spring. They are also the manufacturer of the SOL sailboat.
We think Alex and Cortlandt would be happy that Sunfish manufacturing has returned to the US.
Spring is near and it is a good time to start sorting flotsam and jetsam in the flagship, Skipper's Drascombe Lugger named ONKAHYE (Dancing Feather). You can see that ONKAHYE leads a pampered life when not sailing, with her own spot in the air conditioned garage. We try to keep her escape path clear, right now only a few bikes in the way. She can squeeze out past the Mustang, but it is smarter to move the car first.
While we try to keep only ONKAHYE's gear in the boat, there is some overflow from the resto of the fleet, spare PFDs, a stray Sunfish cover awaiting repair...overall it takes 5-10 minutes to get the gear sorted.
Snow showers today, but the daffodils are also poking out...
I don't think we can call ourselves true sailors until we have sailed an Alcort Icefish. The Icefish was actually one of Alcort's first boats, marketed around the same time as the Sailfish in the late 1940s. Here is our friend Alan heading out on his Icefish, if I remember he described it as "terrifyingly fast." 40 mph or so over the hard water.
There was one for sale on facebook marketplace recently, maybe it can still be yours...
But in the meantime, Skipper and I will stick to the wet water.
